Artist Installs Flocks of Surveillance Cameras and Satellite Dishes

From far away Czech artist Jakub Geltner's works appear as flocks of birds, seagulls and pigeons gathered on clusters of rocks or resting just beneath a busy overpass. When one looks closer however they realize the groupings are not perched birds, but rather surveillance cameras and satellite dishes the artist has installed as a part of his series “Nest.”

Geltner’s most recent installation is titled ‘Nest 05,’ which was presented at the 2015 Sculpture by the Sea in Aarhus, Denmark. The installation, which covers a stretch of mossy rocks, explores the notion of surveillance in even our most peaceful places—the areas we seek when we want to escape.

The Prague-based artist has been installing these works since 2011, bringing together groups of technological equipment commonly used to observe, and turning them into the focal point for the viewer. Within the last four years his works have been placed at a former elementary school, church facade, waterfront, and the skeleton structure of a former KV KSC (Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia).

Geltner lives and works in Prague and graduated from two universities also in the city, Czech Technical University in 2004 and the Academy of Fine Arts in 2013. (via iGNANT)